We work with available players -Manu Garba

The Flying Eagles of Nigeria will be gunning for a record seventh African title at the Africa U-20 Championship slated for Senegal between March 8 and 22.

Eagles head coach,Manu Garba has assured Nigerians that the national U-20 side will fly back home with the cup they last won in 2011 in South Africa.

In this exclusive chat with TUNDE LIADI, Garba explains how he is coping without some of his key men with whom he won the U-17 World Cup in the UAE two years ago and efforts put in place to ensure that he raises a formidable 21 players. He also xrays the just concluded Super 6 which his team won.

EXCERPTS:

Errors noticed during the Super 6

Even during training sessions we used that avenue to correct some of the lapses we noticed during the Super 6 and there is no cause for false alarm at all. We addressed whatever error or flaws we noticed prior to every training so that they understand the theory and practical aspects of what the corrections are intended.We are still a work in progress and we shall correct all the errors noticed effectively before the start of the AYC

Absence of Iheanacho, Nwakali, Simon and others

We are not bothered about the players that are not here. Our minds are fixed on those that are here and are participating in the training sessions we have been having.I have said several times that all players must report to camp for coaches’ assessment before I will select them into my team and anyone that couldn’t make it to the camp should count himself left out.

Iheanacho is still injured and Nwakali just got a new club in Spain,Malaga FC and he is still trying to find his bearing there. On the part of Moses Simon, his Belgian club do not want to release him. I think his club want him to only come for the AYC with the assurance that he would still be released for their league games around that time.

It doesn’t work that way. Players must first come and train with us and blend with the team.We are only sure of the ones we have in camp and we are going to continue to concentrate on them alone for now.

Pyagbara’s contribution in camp

We called up two players from Dolphins, Tony Alegbe and Pyagbara. We had to let Alegbe go because of the discrepancies in his age but Pyagbara has been awesome in training before we released him for Dolphins’ continental assignment. He will join us after the game this weekend.

Bobby Sokari and his many commitments

I can’t stop a player from representing his fatherland. Sokari is still in our programme and even though the U-23 coaches have also invited him we can still make use of him without any problem. What we as coaches need to do is to discuss modalities by which the player is to be used so as he doesn’t suffer burnout. Presently, Sokari is with Enyimba preparing for the CAF Champions League game with his club. We will be happy to welcome him back whenever he comes back. He left us after the Super 6 and he is yet to come back.

Flying Eagles and build up matches for the AYC

Two games with the Ghanaian’s Black Satellites are part of the friendly matches lined up for us ahead of the AYC from the NFF . We are going to play both matches in Ghana at the behest of the host country on February 15 and 18.

The NFF has graciously approved that we have our final camping exercise in Gambia which has similar weather condition with Senegal.

We hope to travel to Gambia God willing a day or two after the games with Ghana U-20 national team.

Flying Eagles’ readiness for the AYC

We cannot be ready for the competition until the first game kicks off. We still have ample time to look at the players and do proper scrutiny so that we will only get players that will be able to represent the country well in Senegal. We are still looking at raising a formidable team and to achieve that, we must strive to continue working on our weak areas before the competition starts.

Final words to Nigerians

What I will tell them is that so far so good, the team is eager to get to a very high level performance during the AYC and at the World Cup eventually but I will implore all Nigerians to pray for the U-20 national teams and for all other teams in national assignments because everyone loves football very well and on our part,we will make sure we work hard and play with a lot of commitment and tenacity to make sure we make all Nigerians proud by striving to win all our games as they come. We are hoping to bring back the AYC and give Nigerians something to cherish.

Tapes on AYC opponents

Yes, we are working round the clock to get tapes about our opponents.We won’t make it a media thing but we are working to achieve that. Before then, we want to work on ourselves and ensure that we raise a team that will make Nigerians glad when they watch us during the AYC.